Churches Converted from Ancient Structures

After Stephen IPs conversion o f the Mausoleum o f Honorius and Theodosius II into the church o f S. Petronella in the 750s a very different attitude seems to have pre­ vailed towards founding churches on the site o f ancient public buildings. From Paul I's S. Silvestro in Capite to Leo IV s S. Maria Nova the common practice was to demolish the older edifice and begin entirely new work. However, in the late ninth century the tendency to re-use entire ancient buildings for churches re-commences. One reason for this must obviously be economic, since there can be no doubt that the process o f conversion is far cheaper than erecting a new building; it is well-known that the papacy was greatly enri­ ched during the late eighth and ninth centuries, when the practice o f demolition for new buildings was common; the periods o f conversion, on the other hand, broadly coincide with straitened economic circumstances. Secondly, the prestige and display o f power which were inherent in the use o f an ancient public building - displayed by the papacy for most o f the eighth and ninth centuries - would also have been precisely what the rising nobility o f the tenth century was determined to establish for itself in our second dark age.

O f the churches founded in this way by the nobility we have already discussed S. Maria de Secundicerio, converted from the so-called Temple o f Fortuna Virilis by the secundicerius Stephen during the pontificate o f John VIII (1.3 above). Architecturally, the conversion simply involved the addition o f an apse, the opening o f windows, and a rich

internal decoration o f frescoes and a marble liturgical enclosure (Lissi Caronna & Priuli, 1977).

S. Barbara dei Librai, which stands today as a baroque chapel situated within the auditorium o f the Theatre o f Pompey, is first referred to in an inscription o f 1011. This states that the church and its properties are to be relinquished by the prefect Crescentius and his wife Rogata and given over to public use (ArmeUini, 1942, 499; the date coincides exactly with a similar renunciation o f S. Salvatore in Thermis, above). The actual founda­ tion by the Crescentii in around 1000 seems very likely, but cannot be proved»After a fire on the site in 1634, the architect Agostino MartineUi produced a proposed plan for the new building, on which is shown the original form o f Crescentius' church (ApoUonj-Ghetti, 1982; our fig. 3.7). It consisted o f a number o f chambers inserted into one bay o f the Theatre's cavea; even the transverse waUs seem to foUow the lines o f the substructures o f the Roman stepped seating. Four altars are shown, one in each o f the zones opening fi-om the central nave. Despite evidence fi’om the fifteenth century that there was an entrance from a courtyard placed within the area o f the ancient arena and entered from the Campo di Fiori, MartineUi shows the main door in a location simUar to the present one (ApoUonj- Ghetti op. cit. 122).

In 1.3, above, we considered the patronage o f the rich butcher Beno de Rapizia and his wife Maria. Their contributions o f fresco cycles to three churches - S. Urbano aUa CaflfareUa, the oratory o f the Seven Sleepers and S. Salvatore de MUitis - could weU be tied to the buUdings' wholesale conversion to churches. The w ork executed at the former, in fact, seems not to have comprised any structural alteration whatever (the surviving blocking in o f the colonnaded portico in characteristic baroque masonry was carried out in 1634 - Tomassetti, 1979, IV, 54). The Seven Sleepers oratory is a 6m by 4m barrel- vaulted Roman mausoleum whose apse is simply hoUowed out o f the end waU (ArmeUini, 1875). The conversion o f S. Salvatore involved the extension o f a 7m-wide Roman brick chamber (possibly part o f an insula) to form a single-naved hall facing onto the SaUta del Grillo (Rava, 1930, figs. 4 & 6 & Tempesta's 1593 view - ibid. fig. 2; our fig. 3.8). The

new foundations were constructed o f massive re-used tufa blocks; the rising walls, conver­ ted back into tenements in the sixteenth century, have not survived (op. cit. fig. 6; Armelli- ni, 1942, 225). The painted inscription at S. Urbano dates the work o f Beno to 1011.

Two o f Imperial Rome's most important temples were given over for conversion into monasteries in this period. Basilean monks fleeing the Saracenic invasions o f southern Italy were granted permission to establish cellae and an oratory in the ruins o f the Temple o f Mars Ultor just before 955, perhaps by Alberic himself, who owned adjoining property in the Forum o f Augustus (see 1.3, above). Excavations (and destruction) o f the complex in the 1920s showed that a crypt had been hollowed out o f the temple podium under the north stylobate, after the collapse o f the columns (Ricci, 1926-7, 5); it was not clear whether the actual oratory, standing on the podium above, was a slightly later addition o f the eleventh century or part o f the original conversion phase. The fi’escoes o f the apse, which showed St. Basil and other saints flanking the Virgin, were judged to date to the thirteenth century (Ricci, 1930, 176). During the destruction o f the apse, various frag­ ments o f marble furnishings o f a type normally assigned to the eighth and ninth centuries were discovered, re-used as construction material in a Baroque phase (op. cit. 180). Such material would suggest that some form o f oratory had existed here since the original tenth- century foundation. Bufalini's plan o f S. Basil seems to show the oratory not on the temple podium, but in a precinct immediately to the north, perhaps representing the House o f the Knights o f Rhodes (Frutaz, 1962, tav. 202). I f we accept his drawing as the mislocated Basilean oratory, it consisted o f a squat single-naved apsed hall measuring around 14m by 9.6m with its entrance facing onto the present Via Tor de'Conti (fig. 3.9).

S. Lorenzo in Miranda was set up in the Temple o f Antoninus and Faustina shortly before 1050 (Ferrari, 1957, 190). The current monastery church was built by Qrazio Torriani in 1601-14. Despite a claim that the remains o f the early medieval building were discovered to the left o f the temple's pronaos in the nineteenth century, it seems certain that the oratory was constructed on the actual podium (NS 1876, 54): an anonymous drawing o f the late fifteenth century shows a small square building with a roof-mounted

belfiy just inside the pronaos, to the right (Keaveney, 1988, pi. 29).

4.2.4 Substantial R epairw ork

O f the various vague references to church reconstructions in the tenth century, only the rebuilding o f S. Giovanni in Laterano by Sergius IE (904-911) would seem to amount to the status o f a "grand projet"^^ . In 896 an earthquake caused the Constantinian basilica to collapse from the main altar to the facade (LP CXVI). It remained in ruins for at least eight years; "erat in dispertione quasi in thermis, virgultis et vepribus cooperta" (Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae, VZ E l, 369 - incidently giving an interesting picture o f the general state o f the Imperial Baths at this time, c. 1073). The extent o f Sergius' repairs, and how much o f them survives in the present building, remains something o f a mystery. The chief picture given by the Liber Pontificalis and the Descriptio is o f a complete collapse o f the roof: "separatio parietum et tectorum curvatio eius ruinam ante ostender- ent" (VZ IE, ibid.). Subsequently, most o f the movable furnishings were looted. The principal obstacle to a speedy repair was the difficulty in transporting timber for the ro o f trusses, as we learn from a letter o f John IX (CBCR V, 11). The surviving accounts o f Sergius' work concentrate on the rich furnishings which he replaced (inscriptions given in Duchesne, LP CXXE, n. 2); the phrases describing the actual building work are grandiose, but give little detail: "Domnus Sergius tertius papa hanc basilicam in minis positam a fundamentis construxit."

The surviving fabric o f the Constantinian basilica, studied by Krautheimer for almost fifty years, gives little opportunity for a detailed appreciation o f masonry styles. W ork up to now has concentrated on distinguishing the remaining traces o f the fourth- century phase. Between these and the substantial rebuilding o f Borromini in 1646-9, the

20 Such work would include: Anastasius III at S. Adriano (Mancini, 1966, 207), John XU's creation of a chapel to S. Tonunaso in the south end o f the portico o f the Lateran basilica (CBCR V, Ifl), the donation of columns to S. Eustachio by Alberic's widow Stefania (VZ II, 180), and undetermined works at S. Paolo fuori le Mura attested by the walling up of coins o f Otto (CBCR V, 103). See also 1.3, n. 19 for Theodora and Theophylact's rebuilding of S. Maria in Via Lata.

most notable "new" feature seems to be the transepts: Josi's excavations during the 1930s established that the original foundations made no provision for these (Josi et al, 1957). On the other hand, they certainly existed by the time Borromini drew up plans for his cam­ paign (CBCR V, 5 Iff). They have therefore been assigned in all probability to the tenth- century rebuilding (Ward-Perkins, 1954, 84). There were, however, many phases o f reconstruction after Sergius m (CBCR V, Iff); the only analysis o f the surviving brick­ w ork o f the transepts concluded that the north transept was "100 or 200 years earlier" than the south, which was identified as dating between 1100-1300 (Josi et al., 85, 94). Obviously the question awaits further study, preferably fi'om scaffolding, and for this reason is not an easy matter to arrange. O f the published photographs o f surviving stret­ ches o f un-plastered external brickwork, Josi's fig.3 - showing a portion o f Constantinian walling midway along the north aisle - seems the only evidence for a distinguishable, distinctive phase between the fourth century and the characteristic baroque work consist­ ing o f short, fragmentary brick (Nicholas JV s w ork o f the late middle ages, on the other hand, consisted o f opus saracinescum - CBCR V, 21). The patch in question seems to display the familiar undulating spolia brickwork usually associated with masonry o f the ninth century, and for this reason could belong to the campaign o f Sergius III. O f course, such attribution remains tenuous, to say the least. For now, w e may be certain only that the w ork o f 904-911 consisted o f re-roofing the nave and re-fumishing the interior o f the basilica.

C onclusions

With the exception o f the Lateran basilica, we have now considered, in varying degrees o f detail, twenty-three churches. O f these, sixteen appear to have been new constructions and seven conversions o f ancient buildings^' . The most immediately striking aspect o f all this activity during the tenth century is that not one example was the result o f

21 In some cases it is not clear whether we are presented with new work or conversions: the Baths of